to g''' and the instrument is tuned to the
scale of E major. It
has a blade mechanism for pitch alteration which operates on each string
singly.Scottish Gaelic term for the Celtic harp, cognate with the Irish Cláirseach (see also Harp, §V, 2 and Irish harp (i)). Variant forms include clarseach, clarsech and clarseth.
The
term ‘clàrsach’ appears to derive from clàr (a board or plank,
presumably referring to the soundboard). The modern instrument stands about one
metre high. The resonator was traditionally cut from solid wood: hornbeam,
sycamore or willow. The neck, joining the soundboard to the forepillar, is
curved rather than upright. The strings, formerly made of brass and played with
the nails, are now made of gut and played with the flesh of the thumb and the
first three fingers. The range is from E to g''' and the instrument is tuned to the
scale of E major. It
has a blade mechanism for pitch alteration which operates on each string
singly.
The instrument stands on the floor or on a small wooden support; the player sits on a low stool. Unlike the Irish cláirseach, which was supported on the player’s left shoulder, the Scottish clàrsach is supported on the right shoulder. Historic examples of the instrument are the ‘Lamont’ and ‘Queen Mary’ harps in the Scottish National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh; both probably date from the 15th century. Scottish history recounts the prowess of many harpers, including the early 15th-century poet-king James I, but the only one about whom much is known is Roderick Morison (1656–1713/14), a blind harper who studied the instrument in Ireland and was employed at Dunvegan Castle, Skye. Some extant melodies are speculatively associated with him. It is clear that the harper traditionally accompanied bardic poetry even if some of the surviving airs appear to have been purely instrumental. During the 18th century harp playing died out in Scotland but was revived towards the end of the 19th; the first instruments used in the Clàrsach Competition (founded in 1892 in the Scots Gaelic Mod) were made in England.
In the 1930s the ‘highland hump’ (or harmonic curve) was introduced into the crossbar by Briggs of Glasgow; this afforded increased string-length in the treble. More recent developments include the staving of the back of the resonator and the extension of the range to C – innovations made by Mark Norris of Peebles in the interests of increased resonance. Norris has also designed and manufactured a mechanism which adjusts string pitch by a semitone, using a forked disc which exerts equal pressure from either side of each string. This innovation permits changes of tonality without a loss of string alignment and with minimal loss of sonority. It also facilitates experimental pitch bending and rapid changes of tonality.
F. Collinson: The Traditional and National Music of Scotland (London, 1966)
J. Rimmer: The Irish Harp (Cork, 1969, 3/1984)
W. Matheson, ed.: The Blind Harper (An Clàrsair Dall): the Songs of Roderick Morison and his Music (Edinburgh, 1970)
M. Hewett: The Complete Book of the Small Harp (London, 1982)
A. Kinnaird: ‘The Harp Key’, Temple Records SH001 (1986) [disc notes]
J. Bannerman: ‘The Clàrsach and the Clàrsair’, Scottish Studies, xxx (1991), 1–17
RONALD STEVENSON